Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China (1942)
Author: Wu Cheng'en
Translator: Arthur Waley
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
Genre: Action / Adventure
Date: 1942
Pages: 350
ISBN: 9780802130860
ASIN: 0802130860
Language: English
Also known as: 西遊記 / The Adventures of Monkey / Monkey
Adaptation: Retelling
Summary:
Journey to the West may be roughly divided into three parts: first, the introduction including the origin of Monkey (Sun Wukong), Tripitaka (Tang Sanzang), Pigsy (Zhu Bajie), and Sandy (Sha Wujing); second, the actual journey to the west, which has an episodic nature; and last, the ending, telling what happens when the pilgrims reach their destination. Waley chose to translate the entirety of the introductory and ending chapters, as well as three episodes, each several chapters long, of the journey to the west.
At the outset of the novel, the Buddha seeks a pilgrim who will travel to India. The hope is to retrieve sacred scriptures by which the Chinese people may be enlightened so that their behaviour may accord with the tenets of Buddhism. The young monk Tripitaka volunteers to undertake the pilgrimage. Along the way, he encounters and frees the Monkey King. He and Monkey thereafter recruit Pigsy and Sandy. They liberate a captive princess and punish her abductor, who has also murdered her father. The father is resurrected and reinstalled as king. They meet several bodhisattvas and fight fierce monsters, before finally arriving at Buddha's palace.
Monkey: A Folk Novel of China (1958)
Author: Wu Cheng'en
Translator: Arthur Waley
Publisher: GROVE
Genre: Action / Adventure
Date: 1958
Pages: 306 pages
ASIN: B000GKPNUQ
Language: English
Adaptation: Retelling
Summary:
This story was written by Wu Ch’êng-ên, of Huai-an in Kiangsu. His exact dates are not known, but he seems to have lived between 1505 and 1580 A.D. The original story is one hundred chapters divided into three main parts. This abridged version translated by Mr. Waley in thirty chapters has translated Part I and Part II almost entirely, his chapter divisions corresponding exactly to the first twelve chapters in the original.
Adventures of the Monkey God (1987)
Author: Wu Cheng'en
Translator: Arthur Waley
Publisher: Heian Intl Pub Co
Genre: Action / Adventure
Date: 1987 Pages: 233 pages
ISBN: 0893468940
Language: English
Adaptation: Retelling
Summary:
Probably the most popular book in the history of the Far East, this classic combination of picaresque novel and folk epic mixes satire, allegory, and history into a rollicking tale. It is the story of the roguish Monkey and his encounters with major and minor spirits, gods, demigods, demons, ogres, monsters, and fairies.
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